Bill Of Impeachment: Article I, Obstruction Of Justice

Sue U · Post by **Sue U** » Tue Apr 10, 2018 3:09 pm

Burning Petard wrote:So is Ms Stormy the aggrieved party on this one?

snailgate

Almost certainly not. It's at best highly unlikely the committee could find Michael Cohen owed her any duty, especially since she was represented by her own lawyer. However, like I said, it may help her case concerning the validity of the non-disclosure agreement, since Cohen did not have the authority to enter into the contract for Trump.

Scooter · Post by **Scooter** » Tue Apr 10, 2018 5:09 pm

Then there's the pesky thing that we probably would not have known there was a NDA at all had not Cohen confirmed its existence, another case of his stellar legal education from the University of Lower Butt Hole Law School coming into play.

Lord Jim · Post by **Lord Jim** » Tue Apr 10, 2018 6:35 pm

One thing that always gets me is the way Trump seems absolutely incapable of grasping the fact that every time he whinges publicly about how pissed he is that Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation, and talks about how he never would have hired him to be AG if he had known he would do that, or bellyaches about how Sessions job as Attorney General should be to "protect" him, and how unhappy he is that he hasn't...

All he is doing is piling the evidence of intent higher and higher for obstruction of justice charges...

I'm sure his lawyers must have told him over and over how damaging it is for him to keep doing this, but bless his little heart he just can't stop himself...

Big RR · Post by **Big RR** » Tue Apr 10, 2018 7:15 pm

The other thing I love about Trump is how he always complains that the DOJ doesn't investigate all the "horrible" things Hillary did; first, it is his DOJ and there is no reason he cannot tell them to investigate her (in fact I think they have been) or even to appoint a special prosecutor (and fire Sessions if he won't). But he won't do that because he will come out looking worse to all but his most ardent supporters, and he'll lose one of the last hooks he has to hype up those supporters (indeed, I know one person who is otherwise intelligent who insists that Sessions wont' investigate because he is afraid of the Clintons--and she's serious). And when they find nothing of consequence (which is likely or they would already have report or a bigger investigation, and it's likely Congress would have started one as well), he'll look like a bigger fool than he is.

Long Run · Post by **Long Run** » Tue Apr 10, 2018 11:14 pm

Big RR wrote:(indeed, I know one person who is otherwise intelligent who insists that Sessions wont' investigate because he is afraid of the Clintons--and she's serious).

Isn't the appointment of Huber to investigate FBI abuse of power allegations going to include the alleged mishandling of the Clinton email and Clinton Foundation/Russian donation investigations?

RayThom · Post by **RayThom** » Wed Apr 11, 2018 3:12 am

Without much more to go on than Drumpf's reassertion that Jeff Sessions is safe from his wrath, I'm getting a strong vibe that our little AG elf is not going to last out the week.

Lord Dampnut wants so bad to fire Mueller, and Rosenstein, but the ensuing Constitutional crisis would prove to be too risky -- for now. With a firing itch to scratch I'm fairly sure Sessions is now in the cross-hairs... again.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/09/us/p ... trump.html

rubato · Post by **rubato** » Wed Apr 11, 2018 9:10 am

I looked up Cooley law school and they are the seventh lowest rated law school in the United States on one ranking and the absolute bottom on another.

Sue U · Post by **Sue U** » Wed Apr 11, 2018 1:59 pm

rubato wrote:I looked up Cooley law school and they are the seventh lowest rated law school in the United States on one ranking and the absolute bottom on another.

Cooley has been a target of derision and the butt of law school jokes for decades. As a product of state schools myself I'm really not snobby about which school someone went to, but with results so consistently bad you really have to wonder about Cooley.

Scooter · Post by **Scooter** » Wed Apr 11, 2018 4:09 pm

ex-khobar Andy · Post by **ex-khobar Andy** » Wed Apr 11, 2018 6:23 pm

I had previously thought that Cohen was just another useful idiot. But he has some serious 'splaining to do. It seems that he has some major real estate holdings and has made some very handsome cash deal profits on some of them: for example in 2014 "a mysterious buyer using a limited liability company that hid the purchaser’s identity paid $10 million in cash for a small apartment building on New York’s lower east side that Cohen had purchased just three years before for $2 million." This despite the fact that the assessed value of the property hardly moved during that time. This is often a signal for money laundering.

There were reports yesterday that the raid on Cohen's office may have been something to do with NYC taxi medallions. Apparently Cohen owns 'numerous' medallions - I heard 34 somewhere but I have not been able to find that number online. A few years ago these were selling north of $1,000,000 apiece but since the advent of Uber and Lyft they are going for $250,000 or so. That means he is down 3/4 of 'numerous' millions which would be why he had to take out a home equity loan to finance Stormy's payday. (It's called a cash flow problem.) OTOH, it appears that Cohen was very wealthy independently of his medallions holding - so maybe he took the HEL to get the tax deduction.

Let's see: $130,000 for 15 years at 4% would be just about $1500 a month; let's assume that in the first year $1400 of that is interest; let's assume that paying off porn stars is a legitimate reason for deducting the interest on a HEL (like, say, sending the kid to college); let's assume that Cohen is up there in the 38% tax bracket; so that deduction is worth a cool $532 a month. Seeing as he has to keep a room at the Loew's Regency Hotel in NYC where the average rate (thanks Expedia) is $499 a night it will pay for that and the little tube of Pringles in the minibar.

Boggle boggle.

ex-khobar Andy · Post by **ex-khobar Andy** » Wed Apr 11, 2018 8:59 pm

NYT is now saying that the Access Hollywood tape was at least part of the reason for the raid. I posted this comment to the NYT story - still being moderated.

The tape was published just about a month before the election, but it was made in 2005. So P45 had been the R choice for several months; and for almost a year before that he had been the front runner. It beggars belief that no-one thought - "Hold on, we have a tape of Trump being lewd!" until just a month before the election. The most likely explanation, given what we now know about how the dark worlds of celebrity, business and politics intersect, is that someone had the tape and was shopping it around to see what value it might have to anyone who wished to publish it or to whoever might want to bury it. Maybe (rampant speculation with no evidence alert!) Cohen played some part in that period.

Lord Jim · Post by **Lord Jim** » Wed Apr 11, 2018 9:43 pm

Cooley has been a target of derision and the butt of law school jokes for decades. As a product of state schools myself I'm really not snobby about which school someone went to, but with results so consistently bad you really have to wonder about Cooley.

In fairness to What Polls, as someone who has actually managed to pass a state bar exam, he is somewhat of an over-achiever by Cooley standards...

Econoline · Post by **Econoline** » Thu Apr 12, 2018 9:23 pm

ex-khobar Andy · Post by **ex-khobar Andy** » Fri Apr 13, 2018 2:39 am

Per NYT Trump is planning to pardon Scooter Libby, who was convicted of, inter alia, obstruction of justice.

Makes sense to me.

Lord Jim · Post by **Lord Jim** » Fri Apr 13, 2018 11:38 am

All of the efforts by Trump, his minions, and his Shills on the Hill to smear and discredit the Mueller investigation are ending in tears:

Americans Are Worried About Trump Firing Mueller, Not the Alleged Stormy Daniels Affair, Poll Finds

While the alleged affair with adult film actress Stormy Daniels might be a story made to dominate the tabloids, Americans are actually far more concerned about the prospects of President Donald Trump firing special counsel Robert Mueller, according to a new poll this week from Quinnipiac University.

Sixty-nine percent of voters told Quinnipiac that the president should not fire Mueller, who is tasked with investigating the president, his associates and their connections with Russia. Just 13 percent said he should fire the special counsel.

Even among Republicans, folks want Mueller to be allowed to finish his investigation. A solid majority, 55 percent, said he should not be fired, while just 22 percent said he should.

"American voters in huge numbers, including a majority of Republicans, tell President Donald Trump: Keep your hands off Special Counsel Robert Mueller," Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a statement.

http://www.newsweek.com/americans-worri ... oll-881134

Post-ABC poll: Majority of Americans support Mueller’s probe of Russia, Trump campaign

A clear majority of Americans support special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and alleged collusion with President Trump’s campaign, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds.

The results show backing for inquiries into Trump’s orbit on several fronts.

Nearly 7 in 10 adults say they support Mueller’s focus on possible collusion with Russia. Sixty-four percent say they want the special counsel investigating Trump’s business activities. And a 58 percent majority supports investigating alleged payments by Trump associates to silence women who say they had affairs with him.

The broad public mandate for Mueller’s investigation comes as many Trump allies are calling for the president to thwart the special counsel’s work. Trump has considered ousting the Justice Department official overseeing the probe, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein — a move that some Trump associates hope would cripple the inquiry.

Trump this week blasted the Russia investigation as “never ending and corrupt.”

The poll was conducted Sunday to Wednesday, with interviews overlapping the FBI’s Monday raid of the home and office of Michael D. Cohen, Trump’s longtime attorney.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... e0c3401b3d

Oh my, even a loaded viewer "poll" on FOX News didn't go well for Il Boobce:

Lou Dobbs Twitter poll backfires after most vote against Trump firing Mueller

A majority of people who voted in a Twitter poll posted by Fox Business host Lou Dobbs on Monday night said President Trump should not fire special counsel Robert Mueller.

As of Tuesday morning, about three-quarters of respondents said they didn't think Trump should fire Mueller, Attorney General Jeff Sessions or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

The other one-quarter of respondents said Trump should fire Mueller.

Dobbs appeared to be aiming for a different result when he posted the poll on Monday.[Ya think? ]

"Do you believe the corrupt leadership and actions of the DOJ and FBI are now so outrageous and overwhelming that President Trump should fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein?" Dobbs wrote on Twitter. [There's a "fair and balanced" question for you...]

He posted the poll after the FBI raided the office and home of Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen. Dobbs harshly criticized the Department of Justice and Mueller after news of the raid broke, and said he would have fired Mueller.

"This is now a man that has to be brought under control, it would seem to me," Dobbs said of Mueller. "Frankly, I can’t imagine, because each of us has to come to terms with our own heart and conscience — I would fire the SOB in three seconds if it were me.”

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/38246 ... ng-mueller

ex-khobar Andy · Post by **ex-khobar Andy** » Fri Apr 13, 2018 3:57 pm

Huckabee Sanders has apparently posted on Twitter:

Sarah Sanders
✔
@PressSec

One of the few areas of true bipartisan consensus in Washington is Comey has no credibility-> https://youtu.be/MVvKw_Ez6es via @YouTube
6:04 AM - Apr 13, 2018

And they say Americans don't get irony!

ex-khobar Andy · Post by **ex-khobar Andy** » Fri Apr 13, 2018 6:35 pm

ex-khobar Andy wrote:Per NYT Trump is planning to pardon Scooter Libby, who was convicted of, inter alia, obstruction of justice.

Makes sense to me.

Yup, job done.

Per The Guardian:

In a statement, Trump said: “I don’t know Mr Libby but for years I have heard that he has been treated unfairly. Hopefully, this full pardon will help rectify a very sad portion of his life.”

And the always reliable Kellyanne Conway told us that “Many people think that Scooter Libby was a victim of a special counsel gone amok.”

I am guessing that these might be the same many people who told Trump that Frederick Douglass had "been doing an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more" and who told Kellyanne about the (gasp!) Bowling Green Massacree.

Big RR · Post by **Big RR** » Fri Apr 13, 2018 6:47 pm

Arpaio then Libby. What's next, a posthumous pardon of Manson?

Burning Petard · Post by **Burning Petard** » Fri Apr 13, 2018 8:32 pm

Poor Stormy, she settled for such a small amount

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/13/us/p ... ctionfront

"Agreed to Pay Playboy Model $1.6 Million." The money came from Elliott Broidy, (deputy finance chairman of the National Republican Committee) and Michael D. Cohen, the POTUS fixer, was the bagman.

The story first came out in that black hole of liberal fake news, The Wall Street Journal. Way down in the NYTimes version you can read that Broidy has a history of illegal payments for political deals.

snailgate

RayThom · Post by **RayThom** » Sat Apr 14, 2018 3:06 am

Elliott Broidy Quits RNC Post After Report on Payment to Ex-Model
https://www.wsj.com/articles/elliott-br ... 1523645801

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